One of those surveys

[SolarCity]

I've been to do a survey on a home local to ourselves. We are one of many people that have been to see her (always a concern) and the amount of crap that she has been told is incredible.

First of all, and the thing that mainly got my back up, was a question that I was asked about the size of the cable needed to run a PV system on their garage roof (about 20 metres away). I said it would be probably be a 4mm or 6mm cable, expecting that the customer would be surprised by the suggestion that the cable was so large. She responded that this couldn't be right as she is powering some lights in there and she is using 4mm for that and that this was 'a system' and would therefore require at least 18-20mm (good luck with that). My brother pointed out that we were experienced electricians and that we weren't just guessing this, she told us that this was the size that other installers had suggested.

She also talked about the size of the system that she could have. She expected a 16 panel system could be installed on her garage - I can only fit 2kWp with Sanyo, and even then at a push. She had also been told she could fit 14 panels on her front and side roofs of her home. You would be lucky to fit 5 panels and there is a HUGE tree in the road - about 30 feet away.

She was rude and talked to us in a bizarre way - like an exaggerated sense of suspicion of us.

I shan't be wasting my time with put a price together for this one.....

 

[SRE]

You have to feel for customers at the minute though - how do they know who to trust? We're hearing more and more horror stories when we visit customers and it's getting more difficult to make your point without appearing unprofessional.

The other thing we're rubbish at at the minute is pushing the sale - we're going to have to work on this, just found out we lost a job because I didn't go back to them quickly enough. I'd only left him for a few days because we don't do pressure sales.

If anyone has any good lines that don't appear too salesy I'd like to hear them

 

[Somecamel]

I heard a great one the other day- You have to act quick as the government are putting the VAT rate up from 5% to 20% very soon

This same company was trying to charge £6950 for a one panels solar thermal system.

 

[solarsavings]

You have to act quick as the government are putting the VAT rate up from 5% to 20% very soon

I have a dreadful feeling we will all being saying that soon

 

[SRE]

is there any news on that????

 

[edexlab]

This customer sounds like one we had early on and turned out to be a new Pv installer , a little aggressive and very misinformed ,and argued the ---- about everything , the bloke was caught out when we did a local green tech networking day for local businesses and he was opposite me on a stand I could feel the heat from his red face from 20ft away .

 

[Gavin A]

I wouldn't necessarily give up on this. Maybe send her a print out of the cable sizing page in the inverter manual, and a plan of the panel layout, together with a brief note explaining that you're concerned that she is being seriously misled by someone, and to please get in touch if she wants an honest, quality job doing for a reasonable price by an experienced installation team instead of a company that is prepared to lie to her to win a contract.

We've won a few jobs like this by proving to the customer that the other company were talking rubbish, and we did know what we're doing.

 

[SolarCity]

I modelled this one last night and I can't design anything worth installing. House is a no-go and the shaded garage is only good enough for 1.75kWp - payback is far too high. I'm going to send her my plans and point out that it isn't worth doing.

 

[jerriais]

I modelled this one last night and I can't design anything worth installing. House is a no-go and the shaded garage is only good enough for 1.75kWp - payback is far too high. I'm going to send her my plans and point out that it isn't worth doing.

Don't give up. You'd be surprised how often customers have made up their mind to have solar, and are not going to move house to get the perfect roof, they'll just put on what they can and still feel it's better than having the money in an ISA. We did a badly shaded roof, modelled in PV*Sol, up to 32% shading and were totally honest about the financial returns or lack of but the customer says she understands that but having some solar is better than having no solar where her interest would be going to pay banker's bonuses. The recent Solar Power Portal article about how our marketing should focus on more than financial returns is well worth a read.

 

[SolarCity]

If the customer wasn't a total peckerhead then I'd probably make more of an effort. She made it very clear that she was looking at this for financial reasons so I think it's a no go. I've estimated a day for two man for the cable run alone.

 

[Gavin A]

I modelled this one last night and I can't design anything worth installing. House is a no-go and the shaded garage is only good enough for 1.75kWp - payback is far too high. I'm going to send her my plans and point out that it may not be worth doing - on purely economic terms.

always worth adding that bit, as there's a small percentage who just want it doing anyway for green reasons, and some may also be getting attrocious savings rates, and see solar PV as a relatively safe tax free bet, so it's best not to completely prejudge it for them IMO.

We've had some who want to go ahead at 5% returns, others who won't consider anything below 15% so I try not to prejudge that for them. It's also worth pointing out IMO that smaller systems will use more of the electricity generated within the house, and ensuring you've accounted for that in your calculations - ie we'd probably use 50% for this size system vs maybe 25-30% for a 4kW (depending on daytime usage levels etc).

Sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs.

 

[Eco Deal]

I find that somtimes customers do act starnge at first but if you back up what your saying with evidance then they soon come round.

she be round your house looking at your family picture album next week!!!1

MAJOR PROBLEM = public are listening to all the cow pooh they been told so when you walk in and tell them the truth they think your lying.

 

[dansk]

MAJOR PROBLEM = public are listening to all the cow pooh they been told so when you walk in and tell them the truth they think your lying.

very true

 

[Worcester]

Also why not go futher and include something like the ImmerSUN in the quote so that she can really use all the leccy and not worry about 'over using' it. (obviuosly make sure she has an immersion heater first ! )